Originally from St. Louis Misouri,
Dan Wool began his career in music as a member of the San Francisco-based
rock band
Pray for Rain. It was however one of
his instrumental demos that led to his first screen credit as a
soundtrack composer. Dan and Pray for Rain band-mates
Gary
Brown (bass), Paul Trupin (guitar), and James Woody (drums & keyboards)
were playing San Francisco clubs when the demo caught the ear
of director
Alex
Cox who had recently completed his debut film,
REPO
MAN. Cox subsequently asked the group to record Dan's
instrumental score for his sophomore effort. The result was
the ground-breaking haunting set pieces for the now classic
cult-film
SID & NANCY.
Since
that time Dan, while often using the talents of the original
members, has honed his craft allowing for contributions with
an unmistakable aural accent to an eclectic array of projects.
From the guitar-driven score for Cox's demented take on
spaghetti-westerns,
STRAIGHT
TO HELL, to
Daniel
Lee's minimalist,
JOURNEYMAN,
Dan has demonstrated an ability to enhance the visual story while
creating stylistically distinct scores for each project undertaken.
Working with directors whose visions have ranged
from comedic to tragic to suspenseful, Dan has invented scores
that embrace everything from boozy Mambo (
SINCE
YOU BEEN GONE)
to funked-out goofiness (
CAR
54 WHERE ARE YOU?) to melancholy heroism (
ROADSIDE
PROPHETS).
Having started with the guitar heavy foundation
that defined Pray for Rain, Dan has expanded his scope when
appropriate to lush "Hollywood-style" orchestration (
WHITE
MILE) or synthesized
alienation (
DEATH & THE
COMPASS) utilizing diverse inflections
from sources such as Caribbean sunnyshine (
KEY
WEST) to
latin-comedy (
NEVER
TRUST A SERIAL KILLER) to nightmare LA lounge-jazz
(
LATE
LAST NIGHT).
Recently Dan has completed scores for several feature films,
SEARCHERS
2.0, REPO
CHICK and IMMIGRATION TANGO as well as compositions for a variety
of media, including a commissioned sound-score for
LISS
FAIN DANCE
COMPANY and
the BBC Documentary 5 WESTERNS, as well as creating music for major
domestic and international
advertising campaigns.
Dan continues to draw upon the innovative spirit that launched
Pray for Rain while investing visual imagery and cinematic story-telling
with sonic dimension and wide stylistic rang
e.